The report pointed out players frequently voiced their support for Spagnuolo during the season, but apparently that wasn't the case behind the scenes.

"Trust me all the guys were being politically correct this season when answering questions," the anonymous player, presumably one who played defense, told the website. " ... Players have no say in anything. It was (a) complete opposite from before where it was a simple D that players had lot of control and say. We couldn't suggest (expletive) ... Nothing ever changed. It was his way only.

"Don't even get me started on lack (of) ability to adjust during games. Bad, bad, bad."

Beyond schemes and strategies, Spagnuolo's personal skills were described as "control freak" and "zero personality."

The Saints finished 7-9 and never recovered from an 0-4 start, which came with coach Sean Payton and top aide Joe Vitt suspended in the Bountygate scandal. Still, those first four losses all were by single digits, and they went 7-5 the rest of the way.

The defense was historically bad defense, giving up the 7,042 yards, the most ever in a single season. And yet, it demonstrated progress under Spagnuolo and had the team's first shutout in 17 years earlier this month.

So while the Saints will take a hard look at what went wrong, assistant head coach Joe Vitt, who also coaches linebackers, doesn't expect a complete overhaul.

"Extreme makeover — I don't know about that. I really don't, but that's why we're in the evaluation process now," Vitt said a day after the season ended. "We'll make sure that we're putting the right players in the right positions to make plays. We'll match the proper calls with personnel groupings and do a hard evaluation of ourselves, that's only fair."

The Saints dealt with unprecedented punishment and distractions in 2012. Not only was Payton suspended the entire season, but Vitt was suspended six games and general manager Mickey Loomis eight games. The Saints also lost second-round picks in 2012 and 2013. Even though suspensions for linebacker Jonathan Vilma and defensive Will Smith never came to pass — they were thrown out on appeal — those players spent much of the season taking part in a legal effort to overturn their bounty sanctions.

While the Saints never used the bounty fallout as excuses during the season, they figured it took some sort of toll.

"I don't know how drastic of an effect it had ... but there was some effect there and there was a whole bunch of combination of things to equal the 7-9 record," linebacker Jonathan Casillas said.